Due to its wide distribution by one of the preeminent Dutch mapmakers, this important map of North America had great influence in perpetuating the theory of California as an island. The map is a careful compilation of various sources and represents the state of cartographic knowledge at the time. The insular California is derived directly from Henry Briggs, as is the depiction of the Arctic. A great number of place names are revealed on California, including po. de S. Diego (San Diego) and Po. Sir Francisco Draco (San Francisco). The Rio del Norto (Rio Grande) originates in a large western lake and flows incorrectly into the Mare Vermio (Gulf of California). The cartography of the Gulf of Mexico and Florida is based on Hessel Gerritsz. On the east coast the region identified as Novum Belgium is greatly elongated; Iames Towne and a few place names from John Smith's map appear in Nova Anglia. There is a single Lac des Iroquois in the Great Lakes region. The map is richly embellished with a variety of animals throughout the interior. The oceans are teeming with ships and sea monsters. The title cartouche features several Native Americans and two comely mermaids flank the imprint cartouche. This is the second state with Jansson's imprint. Blank verso.

See also lot 749 for R.V. Tooley's The Mapping of America, lot 750 for Philip Burden's The Mapping of North America - A List of Printed Maps 1511-1700, and lot 754 for Glen McLaughlin's The Mapping of California as an Island that all describe this map.

References: Burden #245; Goss (NA) #30; McLaughlin #6; Tooley (Amer) #6, pl. 28; Van der Krogt (Vol. I) #9100:1.2.

Condition: B+

Full contemporary color with minor foxing, light printer's ink residue, and a soft horizontal crease. There is some faint mat burn in the blank margins from a previous framing.